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LividLiquid posted:I did mix the metaphors there. Don't get me wrong, the "carpet warehouse" line was pretty good.  WCW and TNA are both horribly wasteful companies when it comes to finances, but in WCW's case you could at least kind of understand why the money had been spent in so cavalier a manner (because Ted Turner had a grudge against Vince, and a powerful media empire that he could use to his advantage). In TNA's case it's pretty much just Dixie thinking she can spend her way to the #2 spot, without having to do all that pesky work. With the added bonus of never once realizing that her rasslin' company is literally one Spike TV executive reshuffle/Panda Energy investors' meeting away from being shut down. WCW ultimately had the same problem, of course, but that was only after Turner finally decided to sell off his media empire. I'm sure it never even crossed his mind that WCW might actually get closed down or have its' TV shows canceled after the sale was complete.
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May 6, 2013 07:44
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The worst part for me I think is the people who will be affected by TNA ever shutting down. I could give a poo poo about Hogan/Bischoff/etc., because they have enough money to last and live on. It's the wrestlers and crew people who would be out of a job, and I doubt WWE would be willing to pick anyone up.
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May 6, 2013 09:22
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Sydney Bottocks posted:Don't get me wrong, the "carpet warehouse" line was pretty good. I also don't think it helped that Bischoff was purely ratings obsessed. All he ever wanted to see were those numbers and how they stacked up against Raw. So they spent an incredible amount making sure that Nitro was good. Goldberg even mentions in that doc how he was at home on Thursday and learned he'd be fighting Hogan for the title on Monday Nitro. He made the point that imagine how great it would've been if they'd drawn that out and did it at a PPV instead, but hey, ratings! The more you read about WCW the more it seems like they had a handful of great ideas and a shitload of luck. Once they used up what they had they floundered because they didn't know how to follow anything through. The Goldberg thing was a prime example of that. Hell the Sting/Hogan arc was fantastic and showed some remarkable restraint on the part of Bischoff. But then it was squashed immediately because of ego and WCW not knowing what to do next.
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May 6, 2013 11:04
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DrVenkman posted:I also don't think it helped that Bischoff was purely ratings obsessed. All he ever wanted to see were those numbers and how they stacked up against Raw. So they spent an incredible amount making sure that Nitro was good. Goldberg even mentions in that doc how he was at home on Thursday and learned he'd be fighting Hogan for the title on Monday Nitro. He made the point that imagine how great it would've been if they'd drawn that out and did it at a PPV instead, but hey, ratings! I have to think that Bischoff's obsessive focus on ratings was at least in part because he wanted to always be able to send reports to Ted Turner and other execs that showed just how well WCW was doing (and more specifically, whether they were kicking Vince's rear end or not). It was probably the best way to keep the money flowing, too; if he could prove they were still beating Vince in the ratings, Turner probably had zero problems giving Bischoff whatever amount of money he thought they needed to sign someone, go to a particular location, etc. Hell, the Road Wild PPVs were always a loss for the company, because they held them at Sturgis and charged zero admission for the bikers or anyone else to attend (and I believe they didn't get enough PPV buys to make up the cost). It's pretty telling that once Nitro finally went below Raw in the ratings for the last time and couldn't recover, all of a sudden the Turner guys started taking a more active interest in the show. I think Bischoff even mentioned that in one of the WWE Legends roundtables. He had previously been given a free hand to run WCW as he saw fit; then when things started to go pear-shaped, all of a sudden Turner execs were telling him what he should/shouldn't be doing. I think he said it wasn't too much longer after that when he decided to leave, and Vince Russo was hired as his replacement. And then things really went into the shitter.
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May 6, 2013 11:18
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Sydney Bottocks posted:I have to think that Bischoff's obsessive focus on ratings was at least in part because he wanted to always be able to send reports to Ted Turner and other execs that showed just how well WCW was doing (and more specifically, whether they were kicking Vince's rear end or not). It was probably the best way to keep the money flowing, too; if he could prove they were still beating Vince in the ratings, Turner probably had zero problems giving Bischoff whatever amount of money he thought they needed to sign someone, go to a particular location, etc. Hell, the Road Wild PPVs were always a loss for the company, because they held them at Sturgis and charged zero admission for the bikers or anyone else to attend (and I believe they didn't get enough PPV buys to make up the cost). Road Wild came about because Bischoff is a motorcycle enthusiast and basically it was his way of having an all expenses paid vacation, so yeah it's probably safe to say that Turner wasn't watching the expense sheets too closely as long as they came out on top in the TV ratings. And of course there's other famous examples of wasteful spending, like buying plane tickets for all the talent each week even when most of them weren't even scheduled to be on the show. That happened all the way up until 1999 I think.
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May 6, 2013 16:22
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Road Wild was kind of a cool idea, though. You had two super manly things, that shoulda went great together. But instead they didn't really click. So you had this scary raised ring and a bunch of bored bikers and the odd booby flash they had to edit out.
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May 6, 2013 17:34
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coconono posted:Road Wild was kind of a cool idea, though. You had two super manly things, that shoulda went great together. But instead they didn't really click. So you had this scary raised ring and a bunch of bored bikers and the odd booby flash they had to edit out. And Harlem Heat getting much the same type of crowd reaction that New Jack got when he fought Gypsy Joe in that infamous "match" of theirs.
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May 6, 2013 17:37
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How did Nitro Spring Break become a thing? It seems like the dumbest idea ever and I don't see drunk college kids being a major pro wrestling audience. Same question goes to Ricki Rachtman and the Nitro parties they used to do - were those even a real thing? My favorite, most enduring memory of WCW will be the final Nitro where they hosed up the live satellite link with Raw and had at least 1 or 2 entrance/video/graphics flubs during the broadcast. I am not sure how a company that is receiving gobs of free cash from Turner's empire could manage to gently caress up show production, but by god they managed to do it frequently.
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May 6, 2013 17:42
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Drunk college kids used to be the best wrestling audience, WWF used to go to University campuses for Raw fairly regularly.
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May 6, 2013 17:56
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WCW basically had a bunch of old white men sitting around trying to think of ways to make WCW 'cool' That's how you got Spring Breaks, Nitro Parties, NWO Souled Out, Monster Trucks, Biker Rallies, etc.
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May 6, 2013 17:58
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1st AD posted:My favorite, most enduring memory of WCW will be the final Nitro where they hosed up the live satellite link with Raw and had at least 1 or 2 entrance/video/graphics flubs during the broadcast. I am not sure how a company that is receiving gobs of free cash from Turner's empire could manage to gently caress up show production, but by god they managed to do it frequently. I would not be in the least bit surprised to hear that just like many of the wrestlers, a lot of the WCW production staff and crew were also making insane amounts of cash no matter how hard they did or didn't work.
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May 6, 2013 17:58
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Sydney Bottocks posted:I would not be in the least bit surprised to hear that just like many of the wrestlers, a lot of the WCW production staff and crew were also making insane amounts of cash no matter how hard they did or didn't work. And most of them probably stopped giving a poo poo just like a lot of the wrestlers did too. Every recounting WCW's final couple years has the constant recurring theme of "we were just there for the paychecks". coconono posted:Road Wild was kind of a cool idea, though. You had two super manly things, that shoulda went great together. But instead they didn't really click. So you had this scary raised ring and a bunch of bored bikers and the odd booby flash they had to edit out. This was pretty much the exact problem with it, the crowd didn't care at all about wrestling or why this guy was competing against that guy, they just wanted to see some dudes legit beat each other up and took a big fat dump on the entire show every year when they didn't get that. Not surprisingly, that just dragged it down even on the rare occasion when some geniunely good matches happened. Scirocco Griffon fucked around with this message at 18:50 on May 6, 2013 |
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May 6, 2013 18:43
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Well the thing with the production side was that most of those who worked for WCW were doing so as a route into other Turner companies. For the most part they never had a consistant core production staff, as as soon as someone improved to a certain level they would internally transfer across to another organisation, in part down to the possibility for more respect, more money or less potential for being assualted by Buff Bagwell or Scott Steiner. Also due to the way that Bischoff worked he never involved the production staff in the details of what he was doing, so they inevitably felt like outsiders. By comparision Kevin Dunn for better or worse was always in Vinces inner sanctum.
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May 6, 2013 18:48
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coconono posted:WCW basically had a bunch of old white men sitting around trying to think of ways to make WCW 'cool' actually the first two were pretty cool and made for fun atmospheres for their shows.
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May 6, 2013 19:03
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John Cena posted:actually the first two were pretty cool and made for fun atmospheres for their shows. It's basically Rule #1 of getting a good crowd: Make sure they're liquored up.
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May 6, 2013 19:04
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VogeGandire posted:It's basically Rule #1 of getting a good crowd: Make sure they're liquored up. A bunch of drunken drugged up bikers, what a great idea. I am sure that nothing could ever go wrong with them there.
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May 6, 2013 19:20
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bobkatt013 posted:A bunch of drunken drugged up bikers, what a great idea. I am sure that nothing could ever go wrong with them there. Just ask the Rolling Stones!
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May 6, 2013 19:23
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Spring Breakout was a great concept and everyone remembers it, not for anything particularly stupid either. There's your evidence it was a good WCW idea. You can find something particularly stupid in everything else they did.
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May 6, 2013 19:44
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MassRanTer posted:You can find something particularly stupid in everything else they did. NO!!!! The Block Tank Abbott: shootfighter Tank Abbott: Boy Band Groupie Norman Smiley as hardcore champ Meng: Everything he ever did Those are exceptions proving the rule though, I suppose.
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May 6, 2013 19:53
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MassRanTer posted:Spring Breakout was a great concept and everyone remembers it, not for anything particularly stupid either. There's your evidence it was a good WCW idea. You can find something particularly stupid in everything else they did. How far are we willing to extend culpability for stupidity. Giving the mic to a man who could go into a testorone fueled rage which could kill you doesn't seem too stupid. Even if what came out of his mouth was...
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May 6, 2013 19:58
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I remember Nash cannonballing into a pool to get away from Goldberg. That's about it.
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May 6, 2013 20:16
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weekly font posted:I remember Nash cannonballing into a pool to get away from Goldberg. That's about it. It was The Giant I think, he pressed Hall in first.
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May 6, 2013 20:31
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:It was The Giant I think, he pressed Hall in first. That's how I remember it! loving loved that concept.
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May 6, 2013 20:35
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I was listening to an episode of The Old School Wrestling Podcast (It was recapping the 100th episode of Nitro) and they mentioned the Nitro parties. There was an appeal on air for fans to "Send in their tapes." Which led to them wondering both where the tapes were now and what kind of fans were sending them in. I imagine they must've had some horrible entries. To that end, does anyone know what they were actually going to do with the tapes? Were they just going to broadcast snippets of them on the air? Did they ever show them?
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May 6, 2013 20:48
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DrVenkman posted:I was listening to an episode of The Old School Wrestling Podcast (It was recapping the 100th episode of Nitro) and they mentioned the Nitro parties. There was an appeal on air for fans to "Send in their tapes." Which led to them wondering both where the tapes were now and what kind of fans were sending them in. I imagine they must've had some horrible entries. To that end, does anyone know what they were actually going to do with the tapes? Were they just going to broadcast snippets of them on the air? Did they ever show them? They did show Nitro parties and like everything WCW did, they were amazing.
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May 6, 2013 21:04
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Yeah, add me to the list of people who loved WCW Spring Break. I loved the ring on the pool. It was so weird and different and really stood out.
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May 6, 2013 21:13
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I was going to describe it with yankeesfan.gif but this probably works better. Replace UFC references with WCW and stick him in a college dorm or cheap apartment. You've got a Nitro party.
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May 6, 2013 21:48
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My favorite match in those Spring Break shows was Ric Flair vs Rey Misterio Jr. where I was almost convinced he'd win the WCW world title after hitting the hurricanrana from the top-rope. I never hated Arn Anderson that much on this night.
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May 6, 2013 22:05
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I remember Daffney sent in a tape for some kind of contest I don't remember them announcing and within a couple weeks, she was on Nitro, in character.
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May 6, 2013 22:21
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That sounds like something Daffney the character would do.
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May 6, 2013 22:33
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Numero6 posted:My favorite match in those Spring Break shows was Ric Flair vs Rey Misterio Jr. where I was almost convinced he'd win the WCW world title after hitting the hurricanrana from the top-rope. I remember that. I was such a huge Misterio mark that I hated Arn Anderson until he delivered that incredible spine buster to The Undertaker at WM 18 several years later.
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May 6, 2013 22:39
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Animal-Mother posted:I remember Daffney sent in a tape for some kind of contest I don't remember them announcing and within a couple weeks, she was on Nitro, in character. She sent in a video about how much she loved David Flair for a fake revived Nitro Party contest. David Flair (now driven insane by watching The Filthy Animals leave his father to die in the desert) received mysterious gifts from a secret admirer (like a solid gold crowbar). Eventually she showed up on screen as his obsessive girlfriend.
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May 6, 2013 23:09
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I loved Daffney since day one. But! Does anyone remember Chastity? She was fine. Not a lot of photos of her around.
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May 6, 2013 23:49
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Rad R. posted:I loved Daffney since day one. But! Does anyone remember Chastity? She was fine. Not a lot of photos of her around. I remember her purely because of New Jack's rant about her.
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May 7, 2013 00:00
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"Chaaaaaaastity!"
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May 7, 2013 00:36
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"Let me tell you about Miss Chastity. Note the name: Chaaaaaaaastity."
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May 7, 2013 00:39
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Rad R. posted:Does anyone remember Chastity? She was fine. Not a lot of photos of her around. I believe there's a pretty detailed video of her, though she's not on her own and had to share screen time with a couple of other people. 
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May 7, 2013 00:48
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Who was the wrestler who was fired, but continued to get paid for about 6 months after, because nobody bothered to inform the front office?
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May 7, 2013 02:48
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Say Nothing posted:Who was the wrestler who was fired, but continued to get paid for about 6 months after, because nobody bothered to inform the front office? You're thinking of Office Space.
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May 7, 2013 04:51
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Didn't Lanny Poffo get paid a bunch of money to sit around and do nothing?
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May 7, 2013 05:03
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